By Laura Schoenfelder

Archaeologists have discovered the original brick foundations of the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg, Virginia, one of America’s oldest Black churches.

Many of the descendants of First Baptist Church consider the early history of their congregation, beginning with both enslaved and free Blacks secretly meeting outside in 1776 as a big part of their identity as a community. Now that the original foundations have been uncovered, it makes that history feel more tangible to the community according to the pastor of First Baptist Church, Rev, Reginald F. Davis.

The excavation started a year ago, and the uncovering comes in time for the church to celebrate its 245th anniversary. The 16 X 20-foot foundation of bricks laid on top of soil dating back to the early 1800s. An 1817 coin was also found during the excavation, solidifying to the archaeologists that this building matched the time period in which it was built.

Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists know that finding the foundations is just the start of understanding the structure and building. They want to learn what was around it, what it could have looked like, and how it was being used. Other things that have been uncovered start to tell that history, such as an old ink bottle tells historians that someone could read and write, and a bottle of vanilla extract meant someone would cook there. All these little pieces come together to tell the history of the people who attended this church.

The goal of the excursion was to uncover the original structure, dating back to 1818. The church was destroyed by a tornado in 1834. A new building for the congregation was built on the same site in 1856, but the church sold it and built their current church a half-mile away. This building was then demolished to build a parking lot for the Colonial Williamsburg Museum. Both the original foundations and remains from the newer building have been unearthed.

Human remains from burials have also been uncovered; however, the findings will need to be discussed with descendants to best decide the next move in research. The descendants and other church members have had a hand in the excursion, visiting the site and watching the work, bringing them closer to the connection between the foundations and their community.

By Laura Schoenfelder | worshipideas

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors reached an agreement to pay a $400,000 settlement to Grace Community Church in Sun Valley over Covid-19 health order. The church stayed open throughout the pandemic, despite the order for churches in multiple California counties to stop holding services in July of 2020.

After receiving multiple citations from the Los Angeles County for holding indoor services, the church, led by Pastor John MacArthur, was sued in August of 2020 for violating the health order. However, the church counter-sued for violation of “free exercise of religion by criminalizing activity directly required by our faith”, John MacArthur said in his statement.

Although the county argued that the health order did not specifically target religious gatherings, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that some health orders could not apply to houses of worship. This finally pushed the county’s counsel to make the settlement. MacArthur believes that the county wanted to settle this because they did not want a trial.

The settlement will come from the county Health Department budget and an additional $400,000 will reportedly be paid by the state of California. These payments will go to the Thomas More Society and to pay the church’s legal fees.

by Laura Schoenfelder

The Holy Land Experience theme park in Florida officially closed on August 2, 2021, after 20 years of operation. For those who have never heard of it, the Holy Land Experience was intended to be a family entertainment experience for Christians in competition with Walt Disney World. The 15-acre park’s attractions included a reenactment of the resurrection, a scale model of Jerusalem, theatrical productions of Bible stories, an animatronic John Wycliffe, and a miniature golf course. Despite the attention and controversy the park faced throughout its years of operation, the theme park could not draw a consistent audience. After struggling financially for years, the Holy Land Experience was finally sold to a Seventh-day Adventist health care company.

Marvin Rosenthal, a Jewish convert and Baptist minister, was the creator of this replication of the Holy Land. His early idea of the park was to bring in visitors who could go beyond reading the Bible but experience it as well. While the United States was not unfamiliar with Holy Land recreations from the ’50s,’60s, and ’70s, Rosenthal’s park was the first one built in the 21st century.

Some of the financial problems the theme park first faced were issues over taxes. As a theme park, the Holy Land Experience was required to pay taxes, but Rosenthal argued that the park was a religious nonprofit and should be tax-exempt. A conclusion was reached where the Holy Land Experience was required to waive admission at least one day a year to receive a tax break. However, that was not enough to help the financially struggling theme park break even with costs. To keep afloat, the park required regular donations from investors, yet by 2007, the Holy Land Experience had racked up $8 million in debt.

The theme park was sold in 2007 to Paul and Jan Crouch who planned to use it as a studio for their broadcasting network where they cut expenses to aid the park financially and added new attractions, which initially increased the number of visitors by 25 percent. Despite multiple years of the broadcasting network providing money for the park, ticket sales started to decline. Never able to get an upper hand financially or have successful attendance, the Holy Land Experience could never reach Rosenthal’s original vision for the park. The Biblical twist on family entertainment was not enough to draw success in the theme park world.